Call of Duty: Black Ops - Xbox 360

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Summary:

Activision's genre-defining first-person shooter makes its way back to the Xbox 360 in Call of Duty: Black Ops. This globe spanning games drops you into battle around the world, pitting you against enemies like the Viet Cong, Russian soldiers, and Cuban Tropas. Hop on Xbox Live to team up with friends (and enemies) in more than a dozen game modes on six new multiplayer maps. Or explore other multiplayer features like the "Create-A-Class" character customization mode. Create, edit, and upload gameplay videos in the new "Theatre" mode, or prepare yourself for human competition by training against AI bots in "Combat Training" mode. When you're ready, jump headfirst into World at War's infamous zombie-laden co-op mode, where you'll team up with others around the world to do battle with swarms of the undead.

8.8

Treyarch’s seventh installment to the COD series will not disappoint you, at least not much.

The first thing you’ll maybe notice in Call of Duty Black Ops is its setting. The plot revolves around the Cold War, unlike all the previous warfare games made in the series. It is still the same old first-shooter game, but has definitely much more new things to offer, that core gamers can actually say as the best in the series.

One of the features that shine in Black Ops is its storyline. You start off as the soldier Alex Mason and will have to undergo interrogation in the first few parts to reveal things and information that seemed to have existed in your memory, but somehow have been hidden. You go through all to discover these things, fighting along enemy soldiers to succeed with your mission. The characters introduced are really well thought of, the plot is unpredictable, and no one goes off on question in the finale.

While the story goes excellent with twists and different mind-boggling scenes and discoveries, the gameplay is not as quite consistent. There are moments when it goes on autopilot with the controls, which is actually annoying. The AI also at some point shows off poor behavior, both with the friendly and enemy soldiers. The annoyances don’t stop there, as you can also find some in the design and buggy presentation. I once encountered a bug that had me actually restarting the game all the way from the beginning. Talking about design, I hope Treyarch considers changing the visual presentation of the Battle of Khe Sanh. You shouldn’t listen so much to the AI too, as there are some instances that you’ll get lost rather than given correct instructions.

Despite the issues, you will still love the game, especially in the multiplayer mode, but again expect to experience some issues again. The single-player can be tiresome at some point, and this is the time you have to go in the multiplayer. It introduces CoD points that you can use for weapon upgrades, colors, emblems, and other purchases. Unlockables can be unlocked through experience points still though. I know I shouldn’t compare, but apparently, most of the features I found in Black Ops are what I’ve seen in Modern Warfare 1 and 2, only the latter ones are better. It’s overwhelming at first, but it will only need some exploration and you will still enjoy the game.

CoD also creates the new Wager Match modes that can help you level up easily just with some points and such. However, this removes the rewarding feeling of the traditional leveling up. There is also a Prestige mode that offers some more challenges for you to undergo while you are on your mission. These challenges are well thought of though, and dynamic elements are often presented with style.

The changes are pretty cool overall, and can be enjoyed especially with the mew theater system that clips out some of the moments on the game that you can upload to but sadly not in YouTube or Facebook. However, multiplayer seems a bit stable still and there are changes that we think used to better before than now.

Visually speaking, presentation is actually pretty good, though there are moments of slow loading time and some graphical glitches. It would be best not to play in 3D yet, as this mode still has a lot of glitches.

Overall, Call of Duty Black Ops is a great game that can be considered the best in the series. You will enjoy a lot of different new features here, but the problem is, there are some vital elements of gameplay that were not looked upon, such as the rewarding element of the traditional level up, as well as the presence of some glitches. But if you’re definitely a CoD fan, nothing can prevent you playing it.

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